Tag: Tagaytay

Last year, I, together with nieces, cousins, an aunt and uncle visited my brother in Tagaytay. It was a short trip but we really had a blast. Last November, I was contemplating on doing a repeat but was still undecided until mid-December because while it will be a blast, it will also be tiring and all I wanted to do during the break was to hibernate and do some errands for the house hehehe. But my other brother was also contemplating on bringing his family to Tagaytay and maybe visit Manila Ocean Park and Manila Zoo so we just did it.

We left Baguio on the night of December 27 and arrived in Manila at around 5 AM. We got down at Victory Liner Cubao so that I coud secure our tickets going back to Baguio for December 30.

December 28, 2016

We rested for a few hours at my apartment and then prepared again to go to Tagaytay. We reached Tagaytay before 1 PM and lunch was waiting for us hehehe.

We visited People’s Park in the Sky this time as most of the cast have not been there yet.

View from the top

They went ahead on their own to take pictures by this huge pineapple.

Our turn

My brother’s family. Yes, Gysher? Any problem?

Sunset as we were leaving People’s Park. So happy I was able to catch this!

We dropped by Starbucks San Jose after for our annual dose of frappuccino.

It’s hard to take a groufie at night. End result? Incomplete hehehe.

We went home for dinner. I asked my brother to just buy cow meat for bulalo which will serve as our viand for all meals at their home so that it would be cheaper. I was trying to cut as much cost as possible hehehe.

December 29, 2016

On December 29, we left Tagaytay at mid-morning. We had ube halaya with us courtesy of my brother and sister-in-law. Thank you!

Thank you, brader and mga ate! Sa susunod uli hehe.

We were already waiting for a bus when my brother mentioned that he needs a printer. I have mine which I have not used for more than 3 years and he can borrow it. He went back home and we asked him to bring along her daughter so that she can join us in Manila.

We were supposed to go to Manila Ocean Park but it was already mid-afternoon and I’m afraid we won’t be able to maximize our stay there.

The adults then went to Baclaran to check out some goods. I therefore conclude that it’s better to go there in the morning when most shops are open so that you’ll have more options to choose from.

We went to S&R Shaw after. I just want to show them the place, buy chicken for dinner and chocolates for New Year.

The week’s highlight was that, we had our strategic planning at Discovery Suites last Friday, February 26, 2016. It was a challenge to wake up early in the morning since we are used to mid shift. While going to the venue, I was repeating my morning prayer where I asked the Lord to help us all actively participate in the planning session. I took 2 cups of coffee before the event started just to ensure that I don’t fall asleep hahaha. Thankfully, it was a really productive day for all of us. An added bonus was that, I got to experience how it was to look for venue for these types of things and how hotels usually handle things.

Holiday

The 30th EDSA anniversary was a non-working holiday. I planned on revamping my blog’s template but ended office work too late on Wednesday that I just slept the whole morning. I went out in the afternoon to withdraw the budget for our strategic planning session the following day as it was just credited to my account late Wednesday but did not see the email until Thursday.

In the evening, my friend and I had dinner at Circles Event Cafe for her post birthday celebration. We availed of their promo which was a discounted rate of Php1,280 nett. It’s still ongoing until February 29, 2016. Suffice to say that we enjoyed the food (we are very appreciative of any food hehehe) despite its limited selections as compared to other buffet restaurants. The ambiance more than made up for it.

Living Quarters

I got a new plant from my brother in Tagaytay. According to him, he got that from our father. It was one of his remembrance from him. I’ll see if it can survive Manila heat.

My tita, cousin and brother arrived early morning of Saturday to attend my sister-in-law’s mother’s burial also scheduled on Saturday. After a short rest at my apartment, we traveled early to Tagaytay so that we can spend more time there and help out as needed.

Burial was in the afternoon. A mass was conducted before finally putting her in her resting place. It was also my first time to attend a non-Igorot burial and it was interesting to see the differences. I’ll try to have a separate post about it.

After the burial, we went to the view deck at the Sta. Rosa-Aguinaldo Highway intersection to check out Taal Lake. It was my cousin’s first time so we needed to bring her there. However, since it was already late afternoon, we needed to proceed to the pasalubong shop to buy some goodies before it closes.

The original plan was to go back to Manila early evening of Saturday, but my brother requested us to spend a night and so we stayed for a night and left Tagaytay mid morning today and went straight to my apartment to get ready to go out again.

We went to SM MOA to have lunch, spend a few minutes by the seaside and check out the department store. We then went back to Shang for Chatime and groceries for dinner and then went home. Now that I wrote about it, looks like we spent more time travelling/commuting than staying at the mall hehe. They left almost 2 hours ago.

While it was a tiring weekend, I am glad to be able to spend it with some family members.

I hope you all had a great week. Cheers to another great week ahead. Goodnight for now.

As mentioned in my previous post, I promised a niece that I will bring her to Tagaytay. It almost did not push through because my brother’s MIL also just got out of the ICU. However, since we’ve already planned for it before it happened, and since they were already looking forward to our visit, we left for Tagaytay on the 25th.

The final cast (total of 9 – 3 adults, 1 teens, 3 almost teens, and 2 kids): auntie, uncle, their 2 kids, my 2 nieces, 2 kids of a cousin. My niece, the cousin’s daughter, and my auntie’s bunso are all of the same age so they relate well to each other.

Originally, it was just me, my 2 nieces, auntie, uncle and their one daughter but I asked the cousin if she’s willing to provide fare for her daughter so she can also come. My intention was for these almost teenagers to continue to bond more (we were all together at my cousin’s wedding too) by travelling together further down south. She agreed but we also had to bring along her brother, otherwise, he’ll throw tantrums. Fine with me, since the kid, though only 6 years old, can already take care of himself, plus his sister is there to see him.

We just went to Starbucks Tagaytay (San Jose) on December 26, together with the kids of my brother, primarily to see Taal Lake. After that, we went to Puregold for groceries. We walked since it was faster that way rather than wait for jeepneys and get stuck on traffic.

Cold drinks on a cold, windy day

The next day, we just attended mass, had lunch at Jaycee’s, had more of Taal viewing, and bought some souvenirs.

I purposefully avoided the usual tourist attractions (hello Sky Ranch and People’s Park in the Sky) because I knew it would be jam-packed. I also wanted to spend more time with my brother’s family and accompany them with their nursing duties even just for a few hours.

SM MOA and Seaside

We left for Manila on the evening of December 27 and my auntie wants to spend at least a day in Manila, specifically SM MOA so we did that on the 28th. I had to look for a dress to wear to another event so I requested to be left alone for a while to shop hehehe. We met after 2 hours for late lunch.

After lunch, we went to the seaside for them to enjoy the sea kahit tanaw lang. Laking bundok sila at walang dagat sa bundok hehehe.

Since it was a workday, I worry that the MRT might be jampacked so we left MOA minutes before rush hour. Naabutan pa rin kami but ok lang. At least, naexperience ng mga bata kung paano makipagsiksikan sa MRT hehehe.

Quick Shopping

I was not successful with my shopping in MOA so I decided to just continue it at Shang. I need a casual dress for a friend’s bridal shower. Need daw kasi nakadress and hair dress. Believe it or not, wala akong casual dress hehehe. Puro mga ginamit ko lang sa party party ang meron ako. Anyway, para ma-experience ng mga almost teenagers ang mall na yun, we stayed behind while the tito, tita and kids went home ahead.

Good thing I tagged them all along, at may mga taga pili ako ng kung anong mas magandang bilhin hehehe. I also had some Bench GCs (di ko alam san galing hehehe, baka freebie in the past) so we went to the store and let them use those GCs. Aba, mas matagal pa silang magdecide kung anong mga bibilhin nila! Hahaha!

Dropped by Chatime before going home for some milk tea. Side story: when my little niece was browsing through the pictures in my phone, she saw our pictures at Chatime and said madaya daw kami kasi di namin sila sinama hehehe. Actually, their sisters left some drinks for them but when we arrived at the apartment, they were already asleep so wala rin. Pero napaka-observant na bata. Di pwedeng magtago sa kanya hehehe.

Anyway, packed things that night for the travel back home to Baguio.

At first, I was worried of the logistics given our big group but thanks to the kids who are troopers, the proximity of the apartment to the MRT station and bus stop, and everyone’s readiness to walk even with their backpacks, that we all survived with a blast! We walked and took the public transportation to get around. We only took the cab going to Victory Liner terminal in Cubao.

We immediately left EK after having our snacks of hotdog sandwich. We were expecting to reach Leslie’s after an hour but que horror! It was traffic. We were thinking at first that maybe it’s because it’s Valentine’s Day so many are on their way to Tagaytay for the night. But it was still unbelievable because traffic started just a few minutes after we made a right turn from Sta. Rosa. Huwell. There’s nothing we can do except to continue with our pang-ookray hehehe.

After Baby Ysa’s christening, some of us decided to go on a road trip to Tagaytay. We used Innover (Anne’s new Innova car) and Anne was the driver. Pey was teasing her how it felt so good to be simply a passenger (Pey, with Reboy, was usually our best friend-driver before). We had dinner at View Point, I shouldered a chunk of the bill as a treat to them due to my promotion. After that, we went to Starbucks for coffee. It was tiring but it was well worth it because we were able to have some fun and share laughter.